Day of Praise

Mon, 11/14/16, "Day of Praise"

"In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the Lord, "people will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made." - Jeremiah 3:16

Let's play the association game. Ya know. I say a word, and you respond with a word that comes to mind. Ready? Santa _______. Barack _________. Hillary __________. Donald _________. Harrison _______.  Ark of the ______________.

I assume you all responded in unison with "Claus, Obama, Clinton, Trump, Ford, Covenant." I also assume if I'd said, "Indiana ______" then you would've said, "Jones." Congratulations!

Or maybe not.

As it pertains to Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, and the Ark of the Covenant, our culture gives folklore hero status to movies that celebrate the search for famous Biblical artifacts such as the Ark of the Covenant.

On the other hand, God says, "Let it go!" Or in the words of today's Bible verse, God says, "people will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made." (Jeremiah 3:16)

The reason is simple.

As much as we love to touch and see amazing relics of Biblical proportion, you can't have a relationship with the Ark of the Covenant, the wood of Noah's Ark, or even the wood of the cross of Jesus Christ. The list of course could go on and on with water from the Jordan River and even the Bible itself. You can't have a relationship with any of these things.

But you can have, indeed your heart yearns to have a relationship with the God who revealed himself through the Ark of the Covenant, the wood of Noah's Ark, the wood of the cross of Jesus Christ, the water of the Jordan, and the ink and paper of the Bible.

Call on the name of the Lord, and find peace and calm and power and courage and direction in life and salvation from sin. 

In contrast, call on the Ark or the wood or the water, and hear..., well, you might as well be calling out, "Bueller..., Bueller..., Bueller..." because Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller) has not only taken a day off but is permanently on leave from call.

So, when you have that biopsy today or that surgery tomorrow or that meeting this morning, as much as we are grateful for people that touch us and things that comfort us, please remember that it's the God of the people and the God of the things in whom we find what our hearts desire.

Call on the Lord. Call on His Holy Name. He loves you and is with you without fail.

Praise God!

Pastor Chris 
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson